Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
11 October 2009
Nampula — The leader of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) and its presidential candidate, Daviz Simango, confirmed on Saturday that his party is submitting a formal complaint to the Attorney-General's Office because of its exclusion from nine of the 13 parliamentary constituencies in the forthcoming general elections.
Speaking to reporters on his arrival in the northern city of Nampula, Simango said the matter had been discussed on Friday by the MDM Political Commission, meeting in Beira. The document had been signed and sent to Maputo: Simango was confident that it would be delivered to the Attorney-General's Office on Monday. The MDM is thus the first party in Mozambican history to try and press criminal charges against the National Elections Commission (CNE).
The CNE said it rejected the MDM's lists because in all nine constituencies the party presented candidates who did not have adequate documentation. The MDM appealed to the Constitutional Council, which found in favour of the CNE.
The CNE and the Council found that about three dozen MDM candidates had no "processo individual" (the file containing basic documents such as photocopies of their identity card and voter card, and their criminal record certificate). They were, in short, just names on a sheet of paper, and thus not candidates at all. When those names were eliminated the MDM lists did not meet the legal requirement of having enough valid candidates to fill all seats in the constituency, plus at least three reserve candidates.
The MDM insists that it delivered al the files, and that they must have been stolen inside the CNE offices. CNE chairperson Joao Leopoldo da Costa has retorted that this is impossible, due to the stringent security measures used by the CNE.
Simango claimed that the CNE "is amputing thousands and thousands of Mozambicans who are being prevented from exercising their right to vote. What the CNE and the Constitutional Council are doing is saying "take this (the four constituencies where the MDM is standing), and you can't take anything else".
Asked about the claim made by Costa during a television interview last week that the MDM had tried to bribe two members of the CNE, Simango replied "I don't comment on lies".
Simango returned to the MDM's exclusion from the nine constituencies at his rally in a Nampula sports stadium later in the day. He said that Nampula too demands change, because "the people are tired, but the dictators have decided that this province cannot have MDM deputies because they are afraid of the MDM".
"You know very well that in Nampula the MDM is beating them, and so they have decided that in Nampula the MDM can't have any deputies", he continued. "Remember when I said that this regime wants to bring a one party state back to Mozambique? That's why they are excluding Nampula, thinking that the MDM will die, that the MDM will disappear, but that's never going to happen".
He claimed this meant that the ruling Frelimo Party was "shouting every day that not even with democracy and elections will they leave. The people who shout like this don't know God. Since they knew that the MDM would sweep them out of Nampula, they excluded the MDM".
He claimed that "the CNE was used, because it is politicized", to exclude the MDM in some provinces.
However, this CNE is much less politicized than any previous Mozambican elections commission. It has three members appointed by Frelimo, two by Renamo and eight from civil society organizations. The argument from the MDM requires us to believe that all 13 members have signed up to a conspiracy with the sole purpose of excluding the MDM, and that all have sworn to silence on this.
Simango claimed that initially the CNE only intended to allow the MDM to stand in Maputo City, Inhambane and Niassa and to exclude it even from its stronghold of Niassa. "But, a day after the deadline. someone must have phoned them up to warn them against the exclusion of the MDM in Sofala", he said. "Then they ran to stick up the list from Sofala".
The CNE admits that lists from the parties did not all appear on its notice board on the night of 5 December. Some appeared in the early hours of 6 September, which might technically be regarded as violating the deadline. But the CNE denies that there was any political significance to this.
Simango admitted that some of his supporters might think it useless to appeal to prosecutors. "they may say that the Attorney-General's Office is the same thing, because the tape is the same", he said. "But one day they will be judged in this land of Mozambique, because they have stolen".
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